If you can find out which device my data is on, fine. But it's probably not on the same hardware or subnet as your filthy little game is.

And what will they do if I say, "No"?

.. as the truck backs up.

"Hey buddy. We've got a load of pull requests. Where do you want them dumped?"

... I avoid automated fund transfers to make payments. No matter how much businesses beg. If there's a human in the loop, there's always the opportunity to look at an error like this and say "WTF?"

When the Y2K issues rolled around, a number of people asked me (based on my previous utility experience) whether the lights would stay on. My reply was: "The power company made it through the Year 1900 and not much has changed since then. Sure, you might get a bill for 100 years of consumption. But humans look at this stuff and nobody is going to hold you to that or cut your power."

Unfortunately, humans are increasingly out of the loop.

I'd like to see the thermodynamics that enables a planet in a "habital zone" to retain helium in its atmosphere.

Unfortunately, not soon enough.

There may be life. But the odds of us communicating with them is practically nil due to their having high pitched, squeaky voices.

Not serving. Linking to from within their own code.

Yes. For drinking the telecoms KoolAide in the first place. Unfortunately, nobody could have foreseen cellular networks "going dark" in rural areas upon the cutover to 4/5G. Right where the utility would most depend on wireless meter reading.

... is always lying to me. In that sense, it's not much different than my wife. So I don't really see a problem with such relationships.

... my local utility doesn't make me suffer through a major inclement weather event in order to experience an outage.

Just a few extra people plugging in their Teslas is all it takes.

... it resembles a cat.

That sort of misses the whole "involuntary" part of the definition.

"She's got huge tracts of land!"

Sherlock has managed to highlight the already well documented fact that the US has under-invested in its power grid. For their next trick, there will be a page-turner on the sky being blue.